“The new yuko record is a dance record”, frontman Kristof Deneijs says “but the|kind you dance to in your room” he smiles. “As If We Were Dancing” shows a more poppy and more catchy sound than its predecessor “For Times When Ears Are Sore. Yuko’s debut record, released in 2008 on debonair recordings, which immediately won the hearts of critics both in Belgium and abroad. The press unanimously lauded ‘For Times when Ears are Sore’, calling it ‘a beautiful autumnal album full of introvert songs’ and praising its ‘magical melancholy’ and ‘childlike innocence: naïve but never stupid, charming but never banal’. Saying that ‘Just like Nick Drake, Deneijs has special gift for dreamlike chords.’ |It took Yuko 3 years to make the follow-up “and actually I never thought we would be able to make a second record”, Kristof says “because after our first record all the members started their own projects, which took up a lot of time. And in the meantime we also saw Lotte - the girl with the strange instruments such as a coffee grinder, bubble plastic and a singing saw - leave because of her studies. Rolf Verresen (Winterslag) and Thomas Verheyen (hear hear a Cheer) climbed aboard and together with the other members Karen Willems (Zita Swoon) and Tom van der Hulst we wrote this second album. Rolf and Thomas brought with them more guitars, organs and old keyboards. We replaced the funny instruments from the first record by more pimped casio’s.” It wasn’t an easy record to make. “We kept making new versions, until they felt right. But now it really is the record we wanted to make! It sounds as a huge cliché, but we actually needed the first record to be able to make this new one. I feel like we have closed a chapter, like the two records are one whole. We started out with nice, dreamy melodies that evolved into more danceable rhythms. Intimate and dreamy, the perfect mix of melancholic, yet still very lively tracks.” After the successful release of ‘For Times when Ears are Sore’ Yuko quickly established a matching reputation as a live band both in BENELUX and abroad. Its concerts at Eurosonic, Pukkelpop , Crossing Border and Spot Festival (DK) did not go unnoticed, nor did Yuko’s support acts for M83, Under Byen, Ladytron and Jason Lytle (Grandaddy). They played major venues in BENELUX (AB, Botanique, Melkweg, 013 etc…). The new record will be released on April 11th and will be presented to the audience at release shows in STUK (Leuven) and VOORUIT (Gent). The first single Dolly Parton is not Yuko’s country song, it’s a track that summarizes what Yuko’s second album is all about: danceable yet introspective, and flavored with a haunting, melancholic melody. The title was chosen as the ultimate figment of the imagination of the blonde woman. It will be followed by a video by belgian Nathalie Teirlinck who also worked with Admiral Freebee and Novastar and whose short movie Venus vs Me won numerous awards abroad. |
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